Japanese
Hip-Hop Meets Enka
Monday, April 14th, 2008Japan can be a tough nut for foreigners to crack — foreigners who want to go beyond the “tourist” level and actually integrate into Japanese traditional society, that is. In particular, there seems to be this overall feeling that it’s impossible for non-Japanese natives to truly understand traditional Japanese culture. That’s what makes [...]
季節はずれの天気
Saturday, February 9th, 2008ここ数日来、春ぽいな陽気が続いて、気温はカ氏７０度にまで上昇した。みんなはポカポカ暖かさの中であまりにも早く冬服をしまって、週半をのんきに過ごした。
私は仕事中で窓の外をそっと見たら、「満開の桜なんてあるかしら？」って甘い考えでため息をついて、がっかりしたような顔をした。早く春にならないかなぁ～
Oh, and for some Valentines Day humor Japanese-style, see this article: “Win over your Valentine with fish cakes” (Japan Times)
豆腐が作りたいわー
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008I’ve developed a new obsession. I want to make tofu — no, not dishes containing tofu. I’d like to make tofu itself. It doesn’t appear to be overly difficult (buy some soybean, set aside a few hours, and voila you have beautiful homemade tofu). But it turns out that it’s [...]
Child’s Play
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007In the process of language-learning (an arduous, painful task), I’ve found that materials made for native-speaker children can be really useful. For instance, this Asahi Shimbun site introduces words and phrases to kids that have come up recently in current events/discourse. Examples include:
市町村の合併
大連立政権
テロ特措法の期限切れ
インド洋での海自活動
Mainichi Shimbun has a similar word list. this one aimed at adults [...]
Identity Check
Saturday, October 27th, 2007Japan recently announced that it will fingerprint and photograph all foreigners entering its borders. Another response to the “global war on terrorism”? Well, who knows–except that Japan is one of safest and yet most paranoid nations… This doesn’t, of course, mean that it’s immune from crime and terrorist attacks, but it’s not (I [...]
In the Grass
Monday, October 15th, 2007Obviously, as far as this blog goes, I’ve been letting the grass grow under my feet. In all other aspects of life, I think, I’ve been sprinting at full speed. Work has been busy–but I suppose that’s been a given recently. Aikido has also taken up a decent amount of time. [...]